Former AD to be inducted into JOSC HOF

By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

“When they built this facility, they built the building first and then decided they better do something with the athletic fields afterwards. We were in big trouble where to practice. We felt we were going to be OK on our game field, but we had to practice right behind the stadium on that small field. We weren’t able to practice in our normal areas because they weren’t ready yet.

“We just had an awful lot of work to do, but we were blessed with what we had and the facility we have now. Hopefully, we have done our community and our county proud by trying to keep it up. It’s a great thrill to see Relay for Life and Special Olympics come in every year. It’s an honor to have the community come and share with what we have.”

And while Smith was now and still is a Northside Monarch, he’s never forgotten his roots came from Lejeune.

“I guess you might say that during my time here at Northside I was always blue and gold, but nobody saw my red and gold underwear underneath,” Smith said. “I tried to be supportive of both, but when I came from Lejeune to Northside, you got to be a Monarch all the way through.”

And Smith continues to be a Monarch.

“I guess what stands out the most is having the pleasure of watching former students and former student-athletes come back and visit the school and find out what they are doing with their lives,” Smith said. “That’s one of the biggest thrills as a teacher and coach.”

Classes at Northside High School had yet to end early in the afternoon of a normal school day when the 70-year-old Smith could be seen on a riding lawn mower cutting the grass of the main field in preparation for the next day’s lacrosse match.

Smith certainly didn’t have to do the work. It could have been someone else’s responsibility to make sure the field was ready for play. After all, Smith has been retired as Northside’s athletic director since 2009 after a lifetime’s worth of teaching and coaching.

And yet there Smith was, working on the field, just one of many things he continues to do for Northside.

“I just love doing what I do,” said Smith, who joins former White Oak High standout athlete and Major League Baseball player Chad Fonville in this year’s class of the Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission Hall of Fame.

“When I left Northside … my very dear friend, Angela Buchanan…, I couldn’t just walk away and leave her with everything. She has been kind in allowing me to come out and do things for the high school,” he said.

“If they need somebody to run a clock somewhere … my goodness, I’ve been doing that since high school. It’s a lot of fun being around athletes and coaches.”

And the Northside community still likes having Smith around, said Buchanan, who took over as the school’s AD after he retired.

“Mike is the kind of person who likes to stay busy and he wants to have something to do. And we appreciate the fact he likes to stay busy here at Northside,” Buchanan said. “Sometimes he will say, ‘Hey, I got a new weed trimmer, can I come try it out at the school?’

“Yeah, you can come try it out whenever you want to. He gives us a lot of help and I would never take it for granted. I appreciate every bit of help I can get. He is always saying, ‘Anything I can do tonight?’”

Smith’s contributions, not only at Northside but also at Lejeune High, are the reason why he will be inducted into the JOSC hall of fame Saturday at Jacksonville County Club.

“He’s a hall of famer,” Buchanan said. “He’s renowned in these parts as an athletic director. Any of the AD’s in this area can tell you that if they had a question that was AD-related, that’s who they would call. He’s a guru.”

Smith would beg to differ. He’s never been about receiving praise for doing his job or going beyond it by helping others. In fact, Smith swears up and down that he doesn’t belong in the hall of fame.

“Totally surprised, shocked and humbled,” he said. “Somebody made a mistake and I’ve tried to get out of it twice. Honestly, I do not understand how I am in the same ballpark as those folks that are in the hall of fame right now, and that’s the honest to goodness truth.

“The only thing that I can see is maybe a story of a little guy who loves to work and tries to help coaches and student-athletes and schools out. I think that’s what my role has been and what I’ve tried to do.”

Buchanan called Smith “the godfather of ADs,” but one would never know that, talking to him.

“Any kind of recognizition you try to give him, he doesn’t want any,” she said. “He believes his job on earth is to give and not to receive and it’s always been that way. When he retired, we put that sign up (naming the field in honor of Smith) and he wasn’t just resistant, he was angry about it. That’s just the way he is.”

Smith’s road to a job in high school athletics started when he attended Lejeune in 1959, where he played football and baseball under coach Tom McGee. After graduating in 1961, Smith went to Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., before joining the Marine Corps in 1965.

“I fell in love with Lejeune High School and I fell in love with the teachers,” Smith said. “I was amazed at what they could do with their skills, and as I sat there in awe and watched them every day I was like, ‘Oh my goodness … could I ever do something like this and try to help young people? I never knew that I might have the opportunity to be a high school teacher and coach and athletic director.”

In the Marines, Smith was wounded in Vietnam and discharged after four years of service. Then a meeting with his old coach changed the life’s direction.

“I came back here and coach McGee came up and visited me one day and said, ‘What are you going to do?’” Smith said. “I said, ‘Coach, they are going to put me out of the Marines Corps and I’m not really sure.’

“As soon as they released me from the hospital, I was still on crutches but I went out for my first day of football practice,” Smith said. “I spent 15 or 16 years with coach McGee as an assistant football coach.”

From there, Smith worked at Lejeune for 33 years, serving as a teacher, coach and AD.

In 2001, he became the first AD at Northside and served in that role for eight years. He was responsible for overseeing all the athletic teams at the new school.

“Looking back on it, I’m sure there was an awful a lot of pressure but there was so much going on that you had to do, I don’t know if you really realize that pressure that might have been there,” Smith said.

“We had two or three trailers full of our athletic equipment sitting out of the building. Everything we owned was in those tractor trailers behind the school because we didn’t have an occupancy permit.

“When they built this facility, they built the building first and then decided they better do something with the athletic fields afterwards. We were in big trouble where to practice. We felt we were going to be OK on our game field, but we had to practice right behind the stadium on that small field. We weren’t able to practice in our normal areas because they weren’t ready yet.

“We just had an awful lot of work to do, but we were blessed with what we had and the facility we have now. Hopefully, we have done our community and our county proud by trying to keep it up. It’s a great thrill to see Relay for Life and Special Olympics come in every year. It’s an honor to have the community come and share with what we have.”

And while Smith was now and still is a Northside Monarch, he’s never forgotten his roots came from Lejeune.

“I guess you might say that during my time here at Northside I was always blue and gold, but nobody saw my red and gold underwear underneath,” Smith said. “I tried to be supportive of both, but when I came from Lejeune to Northside, you got to be a Monarch all the way through.”

And Smith continues to be a Monarch.

“I guess what stands out the most is having the pleasure of watching former students and former student-athletes come back and visit the school and find out what they are doing with their lives,” Smith said. “That’s one of the biggest thrills as a teacher and coach.”